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I recently had the pleasure of being introduced to Brewer Fitness, the company that manufactures functional fitness equipment including the popular Treadwall and Laddermill. While I was initially unfamiliar with the fitness category that they are pioneering, called Vertical Movement, I quickly learned what a great workout it really is, and how nicely it pairs with MCore equipment to give the user a full-body workout experience.

During my visit, I was able to test out some of their equipment and I also got a tour of the factory to see how it’s all made. Brewer’s equipment is made in Randolph, MA, not too far away from where I grew up. It was great getting a behind-the-scenes look at their impressive manufacturing facility, but even better to get to try out the equipment for myself.

Coming from a Strength and Conditioning background and as someone who works out consistently, I consider myself to be in good shape, but after less than five minutes climbing on the Laddermill and the Treadwall, I was feeling the burn. The Laddermill and Treadmill are both fantastic pieces of equipment, because they combine cardio and strength training in one machine and make the user work his or her entire body. Both pieces definitely fit well into a circuit-style workout.

Combining Brewer Fitness equipment with the MCore bench to create a circuit-style workout is the best way to get a fully functional, total-body workout with just two pieces of equipment. Both the Laddermill and Treadwall use the natural motion of climbing to help the user focus on different muscle groups. Adjustable angles help with toning the arms and shoulders or focusing on the leg muscles, all while giving the user a continuous cardio burn.

Moving off of Brewer equipment and over to the MCore bench, the user is able to work his or her core and leg muscles, and, with different attachments-- including the dip bar, plyo top or Bosu ball-- can really focus on toning specific areas.

The MCore bench is designed to engage the core and legs at all times, because the foundation of all movement begins with the core. It is fully adjustable so that any body type is able to use it. Combined together, Brewer Fitness and MCore equipment provide a unique workout experience that is effective at toning and conditioning the entire body.

Forget the old equipment that you’re used to using at the gym—treadmill, traditional weights, etc.-- they are limiting you to only exercising certain muscles. The Laddermill, Treadwall, and MCore bench are versatile and adaptable pieces of equipment that allow you to customize your workout experience.

You know your body best; get into the best shape of your life with fun, unique equipment that is truly customizable to your needs.

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Knee pain afflicts millions of people across the globe. Anyone who has had knee pain knows it’s debilitating, annoying and will inhibit your ability to be as active as you want to be. If you are an athlete, ex-athlete, gym rat or simply a weekend fitness enthusiast, this can be very frustrating and dramatically change your routine. There is good news though- as long as the knee pain is not from any torn ligaments or tendons, but is instead caused by poor mobility, tightness, weakness or muscles not firing correctly- your knee pain can be fixed.

The culprit when it comes to knee pain is usually one of two things: foot problems including poor ankle mobility or plantar fasciitis, or the glutes not being activated enough. If you suffer from any of these ailments, it can throw your body out of alignment and cause other muscles to take over and try to do a job that they were not designed to do.

The root of this knee dysfunction is the duration of activity. When you normalize dysfunction it just causes more dysfunction in your body and can cause injuries to multiply. The body works as an integrated chain reaction. To insure a symbiotic state, all muscles must be working at an optimal level. When you feel a pain, do not ignore it, address it and the rest of your body will appreciate it.

There are numerous exercises you can do to protect your knees. The location of your knee pain determines what kind of exercises you need to do to correct the issue. One thing you should never do is perform Leg Extensions to strengthen the muscles around your knee. Open chain exercises like that put too much pressure on the patella and the kneecap.

Good knees start with good hips. Your hips should be strong in all four directions the leg can move in: Adduction/Abduction, Hip Flexion/Extension. There are different machines to help work your hips all four ways.

A straight leg raise is a very important exercise for activating the rectus femoris, vastus medialis and lower abs at the insertion point of the upper leg. When doing this exercise, you only need a light load 3lb-10lb because you want to recruit only the small muscles of the quad and not involve the hip flexors as much. This particular exercise is meant to activate the quads. When performing this exercise, remember that if you feel it in your abs and hip flexors more than your quads, that means the quad is fatigued and needs to recover.

Stiff or weak ankles can adversely affect your knees. If you have poor ankle mobility, every time you walk you put undue stress on the body because your foot’s range of motion is affected by how the ankle functions. A weak ankle and shin can cause the foot to collapse to the ground and not absorb the ground properly, but when those areas are strong the correct mechanics occur. The chain reaction caused by the foot collapsing goes right to the knee, so over time a person with this condition can begin to feel knee pain and quad weakness because the quads are overcompensating for the dysfunction in the foot.

To strengthen your shins and ankles, try sitting in a chair or standing up leaning against a wall and perform foot raises. You can also sit on the ground, wrap a band around your foot and flex your foot towards your shin (Dorsi-Flexion).

I have a saying, “Sitting is Death,” because sitting for long periods is horrible for the mind and the body. Sitting puts our bodies in somewhat of a fetal position, which we outgrew years ago, but more importantly sitting shuts off your glutes and shortens your muscles, especially the hip flexors. When your glutes aren’t working, it’s not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’ your knees are going to start hurting. The glutes are the biggest muscle in your body and many studies equate patella femoral pain to improper glute activation.

There are various ways to turn on your glutes by using bands, dumbbells, kettle bells, body weight or barbells. You should always start off with the basic bridging or mini band exercise to isolate the glutes. My go-to exercises for glute activation are band walks, glute bridges, single leg glute bridges and hip thrusts. Any combination of these exercises are great for activating the glutes because they are glute-isolating exercises, which need to be followed by some integrated movement patterns that combine more muscle groups. Step-ups, lunges and KB swings are great integrated movement patterns that tie everything together and will help lead you to complete muscle integration.

When designing your exercise program, remember to combine elements from exercises that incorporate your foot, adductors and glutes. This holistic approach will protect you from the normal wear-and-tear we get from living an active lifestyle and will help prevent or treat that dreaded knee pain.

Check out some sample exercise videos, great resources to get you started:

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Spring is in the air! If you live in the Northeast like I do, after having 60 degree temperatures, you couldn’t imagine that we’d now be dealing with 8-12 inches of snow on the ground from a storm last week. Still, warm weather is on the way and that means more people working out outside. There are fitness enthusiasts and everyday people who, in trying to stick with their New Year’s Resolutions, would rather workout at a park or track instead of a gym.

If you have been cooped up inside all winter and only ran on a treadmill, transitioning outside can be somewhat of a challenge. Running on a treadmill is completely different from running outside. Many people get shin pain when they begin to run outside because their bodies aren’t ready for all the pounding on the pavement. Shin pain can be debilitating and lead to shin splits and even a stress fracture. There are some basic things you can do to prevent shin pain and prepare yourself to run outside on different surfaces.

Shin pain occurs when the muscles in your leg are not strong enough to withstand the pounding they take from the force production that occurs when running on hard surfaces. Sitting on your couch weakens your body and running on the treadmill is not the same as running outside. After taking time off, you have to prepare your body for the demands of your workout or cross-training activity. When running on a treadmill, your stance leg becomes a stabilizer so you don’t fall off the treadmill. Plus, the surface on a treadmill is forgiving, unlike asphalt or a track. There is no push-off when running on a treadmill because the belt goes backwards.

Asphalt, rubberized track and grass are all surfaces that impact your legs differently than a treadmill. The push-off in multiple planes of motion puts tremendous stress on the lower leg. Jumping, cutting, start-and-stop sports all put stress on your shins. Your training in the gym should reflect these added stresses to help prevent injury in your favorite activities.

So how do you strengthen your shins? Ankle flexion is the best way, but you should also work to strengthen your glutes, quads, hamstrings and calves, which will help prevent you getting pain in your shins. Glute Bridging, RDL’s and Lunges should all be performed before you start running outside. Another exercise that should be done is 4-Way Hip in a cable column or a 4 Way Hip machine. Strengthening your hips in all 3 planes of motion will help lessen the impact of running on your shins. Below are two workouts you can do to help prevent shin pain.

In order to strengthen your legs and combat shin pain you should perform these exercises and gradually increase your intensity and volume of your activity as you get stronger.

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We are well into the winter season and depending on where you live, you’re either begging for spring to come now or spring-like weather is an everyday occurrence. Since I live in the Northeast, Groundhog Day is looked at with much anticipation. How many more weeks do we have left of cold winter weather? Shoveling your car out and putting on layers upon layers of clothing in order to avoid that bitter cold air that buzzes through the air like a Hawk circling its prey, is all too common at this time of year. Nothing sounds better in the morning than the sweet sound of birds chirping and the smell of spring in the air. Last month, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow so that means spring is right around the corner!

I, for one, look forward to the weather getting warmer and being able to change it up and train outside wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Training outside is a great for the body and the mind. More importantly, training outside is not a controlled environment so the wind, air, and surface all come into effect, giving you a better workout. There are a multitude of ways to train outside, whether it’s a boot camp style workout, cardio based or doing something athletic like playing a sport. When the weather gets warmer, many people take their gyms outside.

MCore FTS has a small portable version of the TS3 that easily fits in your car and can be used with bands or dumbbells, so you can bring your gym and some of your favorite workouts with you wherever you are. The MCore TS Consumer Model is a perfect tool to invigorate your workout. You get the best of both worlds by being able to take advantage of beautiful weather outside and using weights and bands in an unlimited spacial environment, meaning there really are no restrictions when it comes to space when training outside, so anything is possible.

Full-body workouts are great to do and mimic movements in your everyday life. We don’t isolate body parts when we move throughout the day, so for the most part the general population should train that way. The body responds well to high intensity interval training (HIIT) or circuit workouts. Performing a Band or DB Incline followed by a half gasser or 5-10-5 agility drill puts a different type of stress on the body. Workouts like this at the park can be a fun, exhilarating and different way to break up your normal gym routine. You can add hill sprints or drills that emphasize cutting along with your weight training. The Consumer Model allows for unlimited programming, so if there are two of you working out, incorporating lifts and running at the same time is easy.

Below is a sample partner workout you can do outside with a pair of dumbbells and bands using MCore’s Consumer Model. Although there are only 6 steps, this is not an easy workout; it’s a muscular endurance workout so make sure you go at your own pace.

Sample Workout

-DB Bench/Band Hi Row – 3x10

-5-10-5 Pro Agility – 3x3 patterns

-S-L DB Squat/Band Lunge + Press – 3x8 each leg

-Half Gasser – 3x6 rounds

-DB Bentover Row/Band Side Rotations – 3x10

-Burpees – 6x30 seconds

*Do each pairing with 1min rest after your condo exercise.

*Rest 90 seconds after finishing each pairing of exercises

Enjoy your workout!

If you haven’t checked out MCore’s Consumer Model yet, be sure to visit http://mcorefts.com/collections/shop-main/products/new-consumer-training-station

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January 26 2017

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Sports in America is like apple pie with ice cream—they just go together. For many, playing sports provides an outlet to escape the trials of life, while others aspire to be the next Michael Jordan, Sidney Crosby, Serena Williams or Tom Brady (Go Patriots!). Mostly anyone who has played an organized sport can tell you who their favorite and least favorite coaches were. Coaches play an integral part of whether your experience learning and developing your sport is positive or negative. So, what type of person gets into coaching and what makes one coach better than another?

Most coaches are former players of their sport; it only makes sense. I was fortunate enough to play and work in sports at a high level starting as a teenager and as an adult. I have had all kinds of coaches throughout my career- some good and some bad. Over the course of my career, I’ve worked with Athletic Directors such as Gene Defilippo at Boston College and Charlie Titus (UMass Boston) and coaches Tom O’Brien (Boston College), Jerry York (Boston College), Bill Geivet (LMU), C. Vivian Stringer (Rutgers University), Terry Holland (UVA), Mike Poidomani (Boston College), and Shawn Windle (Indiana Pacers). I was able to take some aspects of their coaching styles to develop my own.

The best coaches are able to relate to their players and are in the business for the right reasons. Coaching isn’t yelling or punishing your athletes by running them to death. Good coaching is getting the most out of your athletes with the talent they have. What I learned most while working with many coaches is that they are human and have often have pressures impacting their thought processes that sometimes athletes are not aware of.

Being a coach, you have to be consistent and preach the same message day-in and day-out in order to build a program. Having good coaching at the grassroots level is essential in an athlete’s development. The key word is development, because youth sports need coaches to develop the fundamentals of their sport in his or her players. This foundation is critical for teaching the game. At that level, it shouldn’t be about wins and losses but about athlete development. When wins and losses are put into the equation, fundamentals get lost and the mission statement of the coach is inhibited because the focus is only on winning.

With the growth of very competitive club sports, it seems that often times athlete development is supplanted by wins, players trying to showcase their talents, and coaches with their own agendas. Players are learning a “me first” style of play and coaches only care about getting the best talent on their rosters so they can win and secure their future. It is important to get involved in coaching for the right reasons, not for notoriety but for sheer love of the game and love of teaching your sport.

As a coach you have to stay true to yourself and not try to be someone you’re not. You have to be selfless and compassionate because at one time you were in your players’ shoes. The higher up you go in the coaching world, the harder it is to stay true to yourself. We have seen this happen time and time again. You don’t want to be remembered as a chair throwing, berating or verbally abusive coach. You will never get the best out of any athlete through fear and intimidation. You will only create an athlete who is afraid to make a mistake when he or she plays or a player who resents you. I, personally, never liked being yelled at as a player. I liked being coached hard, but that doesn’t mean you take away a child’s confidence by berating him or her for making mistakes. As a player, when I got yelled at, I didn’t outwardly show it but I felt disrespected, chastised and angry. After a while, you start to tune the coach out when all he or she does is yell. The message gets lost. I know coaches have high expectations of themselves and of their athletes, but sometimes I think they forget what it was like being a player. Getting yelled at for not being coachable is different than getting yelled at for making a physical or mental mistake.

When I coached at the college level, I knew what type of coach I wanted to be. I wanted to be respected, not feared and able to relate to all of the athletes. The first thing I would tell my athletes is that I would not yell or curse at them. That’s not my personality and I didn’t think it would be productive. I told them I would treat them like adults. If they acted up, I would just ask them to leave the weight room and before returning, we would have a meeting. It’s not fair to the rest of the athletes to focus on one player who doesn’t want to be there. My players got the message and would really do anything for me. I also told them that I was there for them, not for myself. I had an open door policy and no question was a dumb question for the most part. My goal was to bring out the best in them so they could reach their goals and have a great 4 years in school.

My coaching style was shaped by all the positive and negative experiences I had as a player in youth sports and at the collegiate and pro level. I have players today still thanking me for how I coached them and some even got into coaching themselves. That’s a very rewarding feeling. Coaches should not be afraid to show their emotions and let their players know that they care about them as a person, not just as a student athlete.

Great coaches remember what it was like to play, put realistic expectations on their players, coach their players hard, develop everyone on their roster (starter to bench player), don’t use fear as an operative weapon, hold everyone accountable, spend time with every player on their roster, instill confidence and are always truthful. When you start lying to players, you begin to chip away at the integrity you built in the program, which causes resentment and discontent. The last and most important trait of a coach is humility.

It’s not about you, it’s about the players and putting them in the best position to succeed.

Today Gregg Popovich best exudes the type of coach I think everyone should aspire to be. He relates to all his players, coaches them hard, respects all his players, develops not only players but also everyone on his staff and doesn’t micromanage.

So, if you are currently a coach or thinking about getting into coaching, remember that players are looking at you and entrusting you to lead, coach and develop them, not berate, belittle or scorn them.